Chapter 47 - Subjugation (2)
It was too fast.
The scenes the Guardian of the Tower was watching were a continuous series of situations that would naturally make one think so.
-...
No, but still, wasn't he skipping too much?
Watching the journey of the man named Kim Gyu-sik, such a thought would naturally arise.
-...What on earth is that man thinking as he lives?
Such words mumbled out of the Guardian's mouth.
In her opinion, just like most floors that included a ‘trial’, the 11th floor was a place with its own profound charm.
It was a place where even a considerable powerhouse would struggle with the simple solution of just fighting and winning.
Because it was a floor where various elements were hidden, requiring the judgment to use them appropriately, and even needing to use the intertwined pasts of each Divine Beast to be cleared smoothly.
But, this man.
He was skipping all those details and progressing the situation coolly as if it were nothing.
The scene unfolding before his eyes was a situation an ordinary person wouldn't even dare to enter, yet he was walking straight towards it without any hesitation.
-Hm.
If he proceeded like that, he would surely... die.
If one became hostile to the Yellow Wolf, the enemies they faced were practically impossible to fight without a proper plan.
Did that man not know even that much?
-You're not a man who's only capable of that much, are you?
As she was muttering that, the woman sticking next to Kim Gyu-sik screamed in a shrill voice.
“Wait. We're going in here? Without any preparation? The atmosphere is so different from when we came before?!”
Indeed, the Wolf's Village had always looked somewhat gloomy, but now it had transformed into a horrifying sight, comparable to a collection from an abstract artist specializing in nightmares.
Reddish chunks of flesh covering the entire village, the scent of blood mixed in the thick fog, howls that seemed to crawl up from the bottom of hell.
It was a scene that clearly showed how horrific the situation becomes when a Divine Beast with divine powers turns hostile.
“My preparations are more than enough, though?”
“My mental preparations aren't ready ye... Hiiiek-?!”
The woman was about to chatter on, but before that, Kim Gyu-sik grabbed her wrist and dashed into the village.
-That woman's name is...
Seo Ah-in.
She was definitely... ‘something’ that tagged along with that man.
The Guardian's impression of Seo Ah-in was just that, but Kim Gyu-sik strangely kept that woman by his side.
I wasn't sure if there was any meaning to it.
“W-wait a minute? Kim Gyu-sik? The atmosphere is getting weirder the deeper we go in! The number of strange-looking monsters is increasing?!”
“Yeah. I can see that.”
“No, just knowing by seeing doesn't solve anything, you know?!”
“...Those are.”
As the two were talking, the boy running alongside them opened his mouth in a low, sunken voice.
“They're the ones Yelena personally placed her seal on. Why did they all make such a contract...”
“...What?”
Seo Ah-in looked around with a hardened expression.
“Then all of those... were originally Climbers?”
“Yes.”
“...”
Seo Ah-in covered her mouth as if she was about to vomit.
It must have been a reaction to seeing them transformed so differently from their original forms.
“Why... why would they do such a thing...?”
That's because they were idiots who couldn't even tell right from wrong.
The Guardian thought so and wore a sardonic smile.
Everything in the world required a suitable price, and the fools who didn't even think of something so simple must have easily fallen for the Yellow Wolf's temptation.
It was a fitting end for those who couldn't even dream that the power they received came at the cost of their ‘right to life and death’.
-So. What are you going to do?
The Guardian said so and rested her chin on her hand.
When siding with the Blue Wolf, the 'minions' of the Yellow Wolf were a very large part of why clearing the floor became difficult.
That was also the reason she thought earlier that the 11th floor would be hard to break through with simple combat.
If one hadn't collected enough clues and essential items while progressing through this floor so far, winning a battle against them was nigh impossible.
Therefore, this time, even that man would surely struggle...
“I'll break through in 10 seconds.”
-...
While the Guardian became mute again, Kim Gyu-sik brought his hand to his necklace.
“Duck.”
Then.
Mana exploded from Kim Gyu-sik's necklace.
***
Conqueror was a more fairly designed game than one might think.
If I said this to an ordinary user, I'd probably just get looks as if I were a madman.
But from my perspective, having poured tens, hundreds, thousands of hours into it, it was a statement I could agree with more firmly than anyone.
At least this game definitely gave you a corresponding reward when a player challenged something and succeeded.
For example, Siding with the Blue Wolf instead of the Yellow Wolf on the 11th floor was, as I had said before, a choice that only perverts who enjoyed hardcore play would make.
But one of the rewards that came back was the ‘Right to Use the Spirit Beast’.
You might not know how crazy that sounded just by hearing it, so let's scan one of the monsters right in front of me.
[ Guardian of the Divine Beast ]
[ ‘Seal of the Divine Beast’ buff applied ]
[ Strength: 124
Agility: 155
Durability: 450
Stamina: 300
Mana: 15 ]
The stats were enough to give me a headache just looking at them.
Mana aside, the physical stats easily surpassing triple digits were just absurd.
If I were to fight those things head-on, it was clear that with my current specs, I couldn't guarantee survival, let alone victory.
[ Spirit Beast ]
[ Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Durability: 0
Stamina: 0
Luck: 10
Mana: 3,500 ]
If a perverted thing like this resided in Gnosis' Heart.
A way out was bound to be found.
[ Arcane Burst ]
[ Effect amplified due to the influence of ‘Blessing of the Spirit Beast’. ]
[ Effect amplified due to the influence of ‘Rune Characters: Eternity’. ]
The aura of mana gushing from the necklace felt like an active volcano erupting.
It was a storm of mana that seemed like it wouldn't matter even if I used all my skills at once, but there was something that could use all of this efficiently.
I touched the bottom part of the object I was carrying on my back.
A part of it disassembled and wrapped around my hand.
It was the thing I used on Ahab before.
It just looked like a rod, but its effect had already been proven then.
[ Activate the wick of ??? ?? ? Y/N]
There was no reason to think about what to do.
The mana that burst from the necklace was transmitted directly to the wick, creating a wave that scattered forward.
-!
-!!
-!!!
In an instant.
A wave bursting in white fiercely enveloped the entire village.
An eerie silence covered the vicinity.
***
-...!
The Guardian of the Tower shot up from her seat.
The space she sat in was a space plastered with high-level arts woven from dimensional strands, so such violent actions were always avoided, but right now, she had no time to worry about such things.
-That thing...
The device Kim Gyu-sik had just pulled out was an object she was also familiar with.
Therefore.
Absolutely.
In a place like that.
She also knew very well that it was ‘an object that shouldn't be there’.
-How... how...?
She hurriedly zoomed in on the image.
The Watcher's Eye, which sees through everything, pulled the device on Kim Gyu-sik's back closer on the screen.
But.
It wasn't visible.
This meant that even the Watcher's Eye, which could see through the origin and background of a target, could not grasp its essence.
And paradoxically.
Precisely because of that, the Guardian of the Tower could immediately recognize what that object was.
She gritted her teeth and glared at Kim Gyu-sik, who was smiling beyond the screen.
How on earth, in what way, did he obtain that?
-That man...
Muttering that, she looked at the Wolf's Village being covered in a white flash.
That light could perform various functions, but among them was the effect of ‘purifying’ the target it hit.
The effect improved in proportion to the ‘evil deeds’ the target had accumulated, so the Climbers with the Seal of the Divine Beast would be instantly neutralized.
Since most of them were scoundrels who would do anything for money.
-So...!
If he had that, then it was understandable why he was breaking through so recklessly.
The Seal of the Divine Beast or whatever, if he used that, he could neutralize them all!
-...
But.
Besides simply ‘neutralizing’ them like that, the usage conditions for the ‘main body’ that used the rod Kim Gyu-sik was holding as a core would be extremely difficult.
Don't tell me, that man.
Does he know even that?
-...That's, impossible.
In her prediction, it was an impossible thing.
But, that man had been a target that had defied her predictions countless times so far.
So if.
If by some chance he could use even that properly.
Then.
-...
The Guardian lightly gritted her teeth and started watching Kim Gyu-sik again.
***
[ ! Important Notification ! ]
[ The Guardian of the Tower is focusing on you. ]
[ She has started to show serious interest in you, and special events may occur as a result. ]
I smirked, looking at the message that popped up.
Yeah, I knew she'd show interest once I started using this seriously.
Last time when I used it on Ahab, it was outside the Tower, so she couldn't react much, but if I used it inside a floor like this, there was no way she wouldn't know.
“You, what kind of magic did you cast?”
The Sacrifice, who was watching the sealed guys collapse around us, turned to me and said.
“Magic? What magic. I'm just using what I prepared.”
“...I'm asking how you knew to prepare that from the beginning.”
The Sacrifice said so in a dumbfounded voice, but I just let out a hollow laugh instead of an answer.
My gaze was fixed on the plaza in front of me.
Well, I could just put these guys to sleep and move on, but the one I would meet inside there was the core of this floor.
“But, Yelena is on a different level from these guys. It should be practically impossible to suppress her even with that thing.”
“I know.”
As this guy said, the boss fight with Yelena as the floor master was, without exaggeration, the wailing wall of the early stages.
As befitting the title of a Divine Beast, her own specs were tremendous, but if she ‘consumed’ the Sacrifice next to me, it was basically a game over event itself.
“...”
But, well.
It had always been like this.
I was an exception.
“So I've prepared something for that too.”
“Preparation?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the Sacrifice with a grin.
“First, you have to die once, you see?”
“...”